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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

I've been trying to trick my husband into helping me pick polish whenever I get stuck for inspiration. Every so often he'll give a really half-assed effort and point at a color I really don't like. A few times I've gotten him to throw a ring into the open drawer of my helmer so that it can "pick" for him. It always lands on something sheer and awful. Or topcoat. I might have too many half used topcoats. I finally found the solution. I joined a group on Facebook called HePicksMyPolish. You get a man in your life to choose your polish colors and then no matter how weird you have to paint a manicure with them. It's a real thing now- he can't say no. He picked like a champ and these are the results:

My husband really played it safe this time. He was alone with the helmer for 5 minutes and I came back really expecting some strange colors, but these were really tame and usable. He picked black and white from LA Colors and this pink shade, Fuzzy Dice from Spoiled. I think I almost had a harder time coming up with an idea because the colors presented so many options. I finally settled on a cheetah print which I hand painted using a dotting tool for the centers and a small brush for the outlines. Since it's Halloween I think this would be really cute with a cat costume. It reminds me of the time my friend and I dress up as Josie and the Pussycats. I don't even think I did my nails that year. Such a shame.

Check out the other ladies who participated in this month's challenge:

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Today's look was inspired by a pretty purple glitter that one of my friends recently donated to my stash. Somehow colors keep existing that I don't own. I clearly don't have enough polishes yet. I think this looks perfect for Halloween without being too literal. The gradient from grey to black looks like mist rising from a cauldron and the glitter is my magic potion. If I could make a magic potion I think I'd make one so that when I poured out a drop a new bottle of polish would appear along with an extra 2 hours in the day so I could actually try it out.

I started with a basic gradient. I've had some trouble with gradients in the past and had to try a few different methods before finding one that works for me. I start by painting my nails the lightest color, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure, Ion in this case. I paint stripes of all 3 colors onto a makeup sponge and blot that onto my nails. It usually takes 2-4 coats to get everything to blend nicely. The medium grey is China Glaze, Recycle and the black is LA Colors. I plan to do a tutorial soon to explain this better.

This pretty purple glitter is Wet n Wild Fast Dry. The label is missing, and some research tells me... pretty much nothing. I did some extensive searching and can't seem to find this color. If you know what it is let me know. I feel even more lucky to have it now since it apparently isn't part of the core line and doesn't exist anywhere on the internet. I used the sponge method for this glitter too since the glitter is pretty sparse in the clear base. It's easier to get it more concentrated at this tips this way too.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

I know, these are the least Halloweeny nails ever. This past weekend my friend Anna had an early Halloween dress up birthday party. I dug into my closet-o-costumes and pulled out my green renaissance dress and did these nails to match. I scoured Facebook for photos of us all in our costumes but there were only two to be found. I was making silly faces and the birthday girl had already changed into pajamas. I really wanted to show you all some pictures of the nails with the costumes too. What is the world coming to when Facebook isn't plastered with party pictures the next day? Is this what it means to be an "adult"?

I've got on two coats of Wet n Wild Megalast, 2% Milk. The tips were free handed using LA Colors, Deluxe. I used China Glaze, Holly-Day and plate BM-314 for the swirls.

I did Anna's nails as well to match her steampunk costume. This is Zoya, Richelle with stamping, studs and rhinestones as accents.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

I have a quick post today and a milestone. I didn't realize that my last post was #100 so that makes this one 101. It doesn't feel like I could have written that many posts, but the dashboard doesn't lie. I still have so many untried polishes and ideas so here's to another hundred posts.

I can never make up my mind or choose just one polish or stamp so today I've got a stamped skittle with ombre polish colors. The colors look different in the bottles than how they showed up stamped so the ombre effect doesn't looks as purposeful as I had hoped. I started with two coats of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Ion. Colors from pinkie to thumb: Ulta, Vintage Violet; Finger Paints, Pretty As A Portrait; Love & Beauty, Purple/Gold; Savvy, Deep Amethyst; Victoria's Secret, Game On. Stamps: Bundle Monster BM-323, BM-214, BM-204 (used two images on this one), and BM-314.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Hello nail friends! Today I have an extra "freaky" manicure to show you. Ever since I got this matte grey polish from the Sinful Colors Leather Luxe collection I've been obsessed with the idea of using it to make elephant skin. When I heard that the theme for this year's Bundle Monster Halloween nail art contest was Cirque du Freak I knew that I had to do an elephant man for one of my freaks.

Please, please, please- if you like my mani vote for me in the contest. Only the top 13 entries get to move on to the next round. Yikes! There are over 100 entries so that's a pretty steep cut to get to the next phase of judging. You can vote here (once a day until October 23rd if you want)- my entry is on page 5. It just takes a minute and I would really appreciate the votes. I'm hoping my awesome elephant trunk and your love will be enough to get me to the next round.

Here's a who's who of my tiny freak show

Old Time Freak Show Poster

Fire Eater

Bearded Lady

Elephant Man

Fiji Mermaid

For the thumb I found an authentic Freak Show font and printed it out really tiny and then made a decal by tracing over the lettering with acrylic paint to get the really crisp letters for my poster. The background is Zoya, Richelle stamped with Bundle Monster plate BM-301 and Sation, Sparkling Ruby. The freaks were hand painted with a tiny brush and a combination of polish and acrylic paint. I made the bearded lady's beard out of little bits of faux fur. My elephant trunk was borrowed from a small toy elephant (sorry sir, I think it hurt me more than it hurt you to cut your trunk off). I made a decal for the mermaid tail with plate BM-209 and then added a belly button.. mermaids have those right?

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Friday marked the closing of my 50 Follower Giveaway and the winner has been emailed. My favorite part of the whole thing (besides giving away some goodies) was reading the comments everyone left for me. There were so many nice things said and many great suggestions given. Thank you so much to everyone who entered and left those awesome comments. One of my favorites was the suggestion to make my blog more me. I've been meaning to for a while so that was my first order of business. How do you like my new look? The real "me" has a very conflicting aesthetic. I'm either way too understated or way way too over the top. I decided to stay with the simple grey background I originally chose because as I was making my new header and pondering how many unicorns, rainbows, cupcakes, kittens and glitter I could cram in my sensible side (and lack of Photoshop skills) told me sometimes less is more.

Here's a look back at my older (and more questionable) header choices.

This one will probably look familiar since it was active until just a few hours ago

Does anyone remember this beauty? I'm just going to assume that no one will try to argue that the new header is not also improved.

So welcome to all my new followers and thanks so much to my old ones. I hope you stick with me long enough to see me through my next rainbow unicorn phase. Although if you like those things I promise I probably won't get tired of them any time soon. ;)

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Wow, I'm really on top of things tonight. I've caught the cold that everyone I know now has and my brain is working at half capacity. I will push through to bring you all some new nail art. :) I've tried my hand at some stamping again and it's nearly passable this time! I keep missing the tips and edges so I thought I'd finally spring for one of those fancy XL squishy stampers everyone talks about. I even have a gift card to use. I went on Amazon tonight all ready to place my order and my gift card balance is 42 cents short of the total. Sigh. Which obsession to favor more? Getting all the things for my nails or being extraordinarily cheap?

I've got another polish to show you from one of my favorite bargain brands, Spoiled. This is one of the new shades called Fair Metal. It's a gorgeous pink foil that has a ton of shimmer. I spiced it up a bit with stamping and some individually placed glequins from Born Pretty. The thumb is plate BM-319 and the middle is BM-214 from Bundle Monster. I used Wet n Wild, Black Creme for the stamping. For the accent nail I used Spoiled, Daddy's Credit Card which seemed like a nice corresponding silver to the pink. I also added a coat of silver glitter which you can't really see- Sinful Colors, Queen of Beauty.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Camping was fun this weekend, and I'm back today with a new mani and what feels like 800 bug bites. My hands are confused about whether they should be typing or scratching. Right.. back to typing. I thought up this "greydient" one night while I was trying to fall asleep, but thinking about nails too much instead. I usually forget all my brilliant ideas by morning, but this one stuck so here it is. Thinking about polish at bed time causes me to have way too many dreams about buying polish. It wouldn't be a problem except I'm always disappointed when I wake up and all those pretty new polishes are gone.

I started out with my ombre base in grey tones (2 coats each). From black to white:

LA Colors- Circuits

Sinful Colors- My Turn

China Glaze- Recycle

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure- Ion

LA Colors- Energy Source

In other news I found the names of the LA Colors black and white polishes. I bought back ups since I use them so much and the new bottles have the names printed on them. No wonder I couldn't remember. Those crazy names have nothing to do with black or white.

For the colored parts I used striping tape and carefully sponged the colors on between the strips of tape. I really love how the three darker nails came out, especially the black and teal, but not so much a fan of the pink and orange ones. I think I'll try to recreate this idea later using less colors. I think this would look better if it were a bit simpler. What can I say? My sleep deprived brain wants ALL the colors. Here's what I used:

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

This weekend the husband and I are going to a music festival. His best friends are in one of the bands playing at the fest. Now, I'm no expert (most of what I listen to puts normal people to sleep), but from what I've heard AOD makes some brain-melting, face-searing metal music and I wanted to do some heavy metal nails in their honor. The festival is at a giant campground so everyone is setting up tents and camping out for the night. I know I'm pretty girly when it comes to nails, but I'll take pretty much any excuse to camp out with the husband. I've got a combination of three different camping mats that are almost as comfortable as our bed at home. It's pretty exciting stuff.

I've got on two coats of LA Colors, Black. The blue nail is a gorgeous shimmery Color Clubs shade called Sky High. I've covered my two accent nails with studs from Born Pretty.